


Just Trying to Help

by CantFindMyPencil



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Based On Buzzfeed Unsolved, Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, Demon Shane Madej, Demon!Shane, Identity Reveal, My First Fanfic, Shane is an idiot, The Ghoul Boys (Buzzfeed Unsolved), but hey so is ryan, not a ship but could still be read as shyan, not a shipping fic, regular updates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:41:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24299026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CantFindMyPencil/pseuds/CantFindMyPencil
Summary: Shane was just trying to help make the episode a little more interesting. He never meant for things to go this far.Shane now risks his secret getting out and losing Ryan...
Relationships: Ryan Bergara & Shane Madej, Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 18
Kudos: 190





	1. Heyyy Ghouls... You there?

**Author's Note:**

> So hey guys... this is my first fic. I've been reading fics for a while but I really wanted to try my hand at writing one of my own. I plan to continue to update this fic regularly and to explore different fandoms in the future. Advice is always appreciated!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan and Shane are filming an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved at the Mission San Miguel. Despite the claims that it's haunted, Shane is convinced otherwise. With such an uneventful episode, Shane decides to spice things up a bit. Was that really his best decision though?

“This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we investigate the historic Mission San Miguel as part of our ongoing investigation into the question, ‘Are ghosts real?”  
Without missing a beat, Shane Madej looked directly into the camera and shook his head. Shane could feel the nervous energy radiating off his co-host, Ryan. “Nervous, Bergara?”  
Ryan glared up at Shane, “Fuck you… of course I’m nervous. And you will be, too, once I explain the history of this place!”  
Shane scoffed, yet he really was intrigued. “Oh please Ryan, dazzle me with your ghost stories. Which, is what they are, by the way… stories.” 

As much as Shane enjoyed doing Buzzfeed Unsolved, he really did feel guilty lying to Ryan. He lied about not believing in ghosts and demons, which was ironic, considering that he himself was a demon. Shane had never intended to actually enjoy spending his weekends ghost hunting with Ryan, but he really, truly did enjoy it.  
At some point during the show’s filming, Ryan had become closer to Shane than any human ever had in his many years of living. Before Ryan, Shane didn’t believe he was capable of having real relationships or friends. Shane actually cared about Ryan, a lot, and it hurt Shane to continue lying to him. But Shane knew he could never tell Ryan the truth, because Ryan’s greatest fear happened to be of Shane. Well, not of Shane exactly, but what Shane was, a demon. 

Shane realized he had gotten lost in his thoughts after Ryan began elbowing him in the side. “Ow… OW. Would you cut that out? I’m all ears now baby,” Shane pointed finger guns at the camera and leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, determined to listen to Ryan’s little history lesson.  
Ryan took a deep breath, and in his narrator voice began to tell the history behind the mission they were sitting in front of. “In 1797, the Mission San Miguel in San Miguel, California was constructed in attempts to lessen the distance between the Mission San Antonio de Padua and Mission San Luis Obispo. Over the years, Mission San Miguel has become notorious for its string of misfortune. It has suffered from earthquakes, fires, and numerous deaths.  
“With that said, let’s dive into the numerous ghosts said to haunt the mission. The first and most notorious ghost is suspected to be the spirit of a man named Mr. Reed. Mr. Reed and a group of roughly 8 to 10 people were murdered by pirates-”  
“Pirates?” Shane shot up in his seat, grinning from ear to ear.  
Ryan rolled his eyes, “Yes, pirates. But not the kind you see in movies. These were more like burglars who used a ship to get around.”  
“Nope. Sorry Ryan, they’re swash-buckling pirates,” Shane crossed his arms for dramatic effect, “And suddenly I’m waaaay more invested in this case.”  
“Well sorry to burst your bubble, but there are no ghost pirates in this mission,” Shane immediately looked disappointed, “but the pirates did come to the mission looking for gold. You see, Mr. Reed had claimed to have hidden riches underneath the mission, and once the pirates realized there were no actual riches, they murdered Mr. Reed and all the others who were with him.”  
Shane looked pensive for a moment. “Hmph. Brutal. I still think there’s ghost pirates.”

After Ryan had finished explaining the history of the mission, the boys began to wander through the church. Aside from the occasional floorboard creak, nothing substantial had happened while filming. Shane of course, knew why they didn’t have any evidence yet. The simple answer was that the mission was not actually haunted. There wasn't so much as a weak spirit there to give off some spooks. After walking through the entire mission, Shane figured that all the ghost rumors had been drum up to increase the number of tourist visits.  
The guys had almost finished filming, still with no real evidence. Shane no longer felt fear radiating off of Ryan, instead he just felt disappointed. Understandably so, Shane thought, considering that this had been the most unproductive shoots in a long time. Even Shane’s taunts at all the non-existent ghosts seemed to be falling flat. Shane was desperate to add something, anything, to this episode. The only thing left to film were the solo investigations. The solo investigations.  
Shane had a terrible idea, and considering it was terrible, he was definitely going to go through with it. Shane looked over at their cameraman, TJ, and started to strike up a conversation.  
“Hey, TJ, why don’t we film the sign off now? That way you can go home, and Ryan and I will just finish up our solo investigations without the rest of the crew.”  
TJ didn’t hesitate in responding, “Sure, sounds good, I could use a little extra sleep anyways.”  
Soon enough, the ending for the video had been filmed, the crew had packed up and drove away, and Ryan and Shane stood outside the mission alone. Shane could feel Ryan’s nerves starting to return. Shane volunteered to go first for the solo investigations, which took place in one of the church most “haunted” confessionals. Shane took the opportunity to let his guard down and use his true sight, which allowed him to see both the human realm and ghost realm. As he did so, he held his hand over the GoPro strapped to his chest in order to keep his black eyes from being caught on film. To no surprise, Shane saw nothing, and realized that the mission truly wasn’t haunted. There were no demons or ghosts anywhere on the mission’s grounds. Well, all accept Shane.  
Finally, Ryan called to signal his time was done. As Shane passed Ryan on his way to do his solo investigation, he decided to get Ryan riled up. “I wouldn’t go in there if I was you, Ry. I nearly died trying to fight off all the ghost pirates in there!” Instead of responding, Ryan just groaned and rolled his eyes.  
As soon as Ryan was out of sight, Shane carefully took off all the camera equipment he had strapped to him. He was then able to slip into his more natural, demonic form. In this state, Shane looked similar to a shadow-fog hybrid. His eyes were once again inky black, and he could see Ryan sitting in the confessional. Shane crept into the confessional, situating himself right behind Ryan. Shane leaned close to Ryan, and whispered into his ear, “run”. Ryan flinched, and Shane could feel all the terror building in his small body. Ryan quickly whipped around, aiming his camera right at where Shane had been.  
Shane had made his way back to his camera gear before he got the chance to watch Ryan’s reaction. However, it didn’t take long for Ryan to come sprinting into the room with Shane, as pale as Shane had ever seen him.  
“Uh, Ry-guy, that wasn’t even three minutes.”  
“Shit shit shit. We need to leave.”  
Shane tried his best to look confused, “What, what happened-”  
“-Now, Shane.”  
Shane had never seen Ryan this scared before, which he thought was odd considering how often Ryan had thought he heard things whisper into his ear. Admittedly, none of those times had ever been Shane’s doing. Shane didn’t have much time to question it, because Ryan had already booked it for the car, and judging how odd he was acting Shane wasn’t too sure Ryan wouldn’t just drive off without him.  
Shane made it to the car and slouched into the passenger's seat. Ryan gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles began turning white. Shane kept waiting for Ryan to say something, but after a few silent minutes of driving he decided to go ahead and break the tension. “Sooo… about what just happened. Why’d we leave the church so quickly Ry? Did you run into one of those ghost pirates?’  
Despite Shane’s best efforts to lighten the mood, Ryan only became more frustrated. Shane began to feel a sort of anger radiating off of Ryan. “Shut up, Shane. There was no ghost pirate. Although I doubt you’d believe me if I told you what really happened.”  
Shane was hurt. Sure, he usually dismissed Ryan’s claims, but he never expected Ryan to get angry at him for it. He softened his tone, “Hey, Ryan, I’m… I’m sorry, really, for making fun of ghosts and stuff. But, really, tell me what happened. I may not believe in the supernatural, but I do believe something happened to you back there.”  
With that, Ryan seemed to let go. His grip on the wheel relaxed and the anger coming off of him began to lessen. “Alright, well, back in the confessional, nothing really happened for the first few minutes. But then, I felt a chill run down my spine, and that’s when something whispered ‘run’ in my ear.” Shane started to regret what he had done to Ryan, but he had never anticipated for him to react like this. Before he could say anything to Ryan to comfort him, Ryan took a shaky breath and continued to tell his story. “So, when I heard, I heard that thing, I jumped. I turned to see where it came from, and Shane, I saw something.”  
Shane sat up, he thought that he had left the confessional before Ryan had the chance to see him. Surely Ryan was in so much shock from Shane’s visit that his mind had played tricks on him. “What did you, uh, see Ryan?”  
“It-it was this creature. It was super dark, and kinda see-through. It had horn-like wisps on its head and the most soulless eyes I’ve ever seen. Shane, I know I sound crazy, but, I think I saw a d-demon.”  
Unfortunately for Shane, Ryan didn’t sound crazy.


	2. Well, this Could have Gone Better...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan finally builds up the courage to edit the footage from their last Unsolved Episode. Shane is convinced that he was careful enough to not leave any proof behind, but that doesn't help calm his nerves anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaannnnddddd we're back baby! Thank you all for the support on the chapter I posted yesterday! Honestly, I wasn't even sure if anyone would see it... But you guys did!   
> At the beginning of this chapter I mention that Ryan is editing the footage from the weekend to go up on Friday. I know in real life Unsolved is filmed way in advance, but let's be honest there's quite a few things about this fic that don't fit reality... *cough* *cough* demon shane.  
> anyways, enough of my rambling... here's chapter 2!

The next few days were stressful for both Ryan and Shane, but each for different reasons. Shane couldn’t help notice the way Ryan flinched anytime someone would approach his desk at work.   
Despite his best efforts, Ryan could not shake the experience he had at Mission San Miguel from his head. And from what Shane saw, Ryan was doing a poor job at hiding it. The boys had finished filming on Saturday, and Ryan refused to so much as download the video files to his computer to edit them. Unfortunately, Ryan knew he couldn’t put off the editing for much longer. The episode was supposed to be uploaded on Friday afternoon, meaning it had to be finished sometime Friday morning. On Wednesday, Ryan had just gotten back from lunch with Shane when he decided to crack down and edit the video. Ryan was so scared of what might be on the footage, and it had cost him sleep all week. Everytime he tried to close his eyes, he was reminded with the soulless eyes of the creature he saw back in the confessional.   
Ryan’s lack of sleep did not go unnoticed. Shane was growing increasingly worried for Ryan, especially since his erratic behavior was pretty much all his fault. Shane had always known that Ryan would freak out if he ever got any actual proof of ghosts or demons, yet Shane never anticipated Ryan to be this shaken up over it. It’s not like Shane meant for Ryan to see him in his demonic form, but there was nothing he could do to change that now. The only thing that came out of the whole ordeal was the confirmation that Shane could not tell Ryan what he truly was. Shane was nervous what would happen if Ryan ever did get his hands on substantial proof. Shane knew Ryan would try to expose Shane’s true nature to the whole internet. But that’s not what really worried Shane. Although Shane did not want to admit it, the thing he feared the most was losing Ryan. Shane was determined to protect Ryan and his secret at all costs.  
Work was over and people began leaving by the time Ryan had finished editing about half of the new video. Despite having nothing happen during the majority of the footage, Ryan couldn’t help feel stressed as he edited. If he didn’t finish the video tonight, Ryan knew he would never get sleep. The last thing he needed was to miss another night of sleep this week. All day, Shane had been pestering Ryan about his sleeping habits. Ryan continuously assured him that he was fine, but the more Ryan said it the less he himself believed it. Ryan could tell that Shane was skeptical of his answers too. Typical Shane, always being the skeptic.   
Ryan debated leaving his laptop at work, pushing the footage from his mind and trying to get to bed early. He couldn’t. As he was standing to leave, he made the last minute decision to take his laptop (and the Unsolved footage) with him.   
On his drive home, Ryan decided to only edit the solo investigations. That was the only part he cared about getting out of the way anyways. If Ryan could just finish editing the footage, he would be able to put this whole thing behind him. Ryan knew there were only two outcomes  
1\. He finds absolutely nothing in the footage and Shane gets to rub another proofless episode in his face. As disappointing as that will be to the fans Ryan will get to have an actual good few hours of sleep for once.  
\- or -  
2\. He finds something; a shape, a sound, something, in the footage and gets to prove to Shane his reaction was valid.   
Ryan almost wanted to find proof just to see the look on Shane’s face when he realized ghosts actually were real. That would almost make the loss of sanity and sleep worth it. Either way, Ryan was editing that footage and then calling Shane.

Shane had intended to stay at work until Ryan left, that way he could keep his eye on the little guy. Shane had intended to stay, but he was really bad when it came to patience. About fifteen minutes after work had ended, Ryan was still deep into editing the footage, and Shane decided to head back to his apartment. Shane figured he would text Ryan later just to check up on him.   
Shane walked back to his apartment, and was there in about fifteen minutes. He lived on the second floor, and took his time climbing up the stairs. Ever since he intervened on Unsolved, he could barely stand being alone. Although Shane knew he wasn’t totally alone, he still had his cat to keep him company.   
Unlocking his front door, Shane stumbled into his apartment and threw his work stuff on his kitchen counter. When he was home alone, he didn’t bother turning on the lights. With his true sight, he was able to see perfectly fine in the dark. Shane spent the next hour trying to do odd tasks around the apartment; reading, organizing his desk, and working on new ideas for Puppet History. That was the most unproductive hour Shane had ever endured, which, for an immortal demon, says quite a lot.   
Shane finally caved and decided just to shoot Ryan a text  
Hey, how’s the editing going?  
Shane’s finger hovered over his keyboard, debating whether or not to use an emoji, but eventually decided not to, considering how much he loathed using emojis unironically. He tossed his phone onto his couch and walked into the kitchen. Shane opened his fridge, looked around for a few disinterested minutes, and finally decided that he wasn’t even hungry. He walked back to the couch to check his phone. He had a few Twitter notifications, some Buzzfeed article pop-ups, and a new text from Steven Lim. But nothing from Ryan…

Another hour had passed, and Shane had almost forgotten that he had texted Ryan in the first place. He was in the middle of reading about the benefits of almonds when his phone began to buzz. He looked down to mute the notification, when he realized who the text was from: Ryan Boogara  
I’m coming over. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.  
K.   
Shane was taken by surprise. Ryan never invited himself over. Shane realized Ryan probably had gotten tired editing and needed to get out of the house. Shane looked around his apartment, at the dirty laundry strewn about the floor, his supplies from Buzzfeed that he had left scattered on the kitchen counter, and the mass amount of empty water bottles shoved in odd corners of the room. Shane knew Ryan wouldn’t notice or care, but he still wanted to clean up a bit.   
Shane had just finished throwing the last of his plastic water bottles into his recycling when he heard a knock at his door. Shane hustled over to the door, just barely remembering that he needed to turn the lights on. He flipped the lightswitch and began to open the door.  
Shane was relieved Ryan had decided to take a break from editing and spend some time with him. Shane had barely opened the door when Ryan came rushing in, eyes wild and panic dripping off of him.   
“Shane… I found some-something while editing. You need to see this.”  
“Shit,” Shane thought, but decided to play it cool, “Yeah, alright. Can I get you something to drink? Water, coffee, beer?”  
Ryan didn’t even seem to hear him. “I told you. I told you there was something with me in that confessional.”  
Okay… so this might be bad. Shane was so careful, there was no way Ryan actually had anything substantial, yet, here he was, practically about to combust on his couch. Tentatively, Shane made his way to the couch next to Ryan. Ryan’s face was pulled up on the screen, and Shane could tell Ryan had already fast-forwarded the video to the exact part Shane was meant to watch. Without another word, Ryan hit play.  
There was Ryan, sitting in the dark, small confessional. The camera image became fuzzy for a second, and Shane could tell that was the moment he had entered the room. Shane strained his ears, trying to listen for when he told Ryan to run. In the video, Ryan shuddered, and then Shane heard the faintest of whispers. It was so faint, that had Shane not been listening for it, he would have never picked up on it.   
Shane relaxed. Sure, it was actual proof, but it was so indiscernible that even Ryan would have a hard time denying it could have been anything that made that noise. Shane was ready to debunk Ryan’s fears, until he realized Ryan still had the video playing.  
Immediately after Shane had whispered to Ryan, Ryan became visibly tense. Shane was confident that this was the moment he had left Ryan alone in the room. The camera angle of the video switched from the GoPro strapped to Ryan’s chest to the night vision camera in his hand. The video was extremely blurry as Ryan whipped around to face where Shane had been in the confessional. As the camera began to focus, Ryan hit the spacebar on his laptop to pause the video.  
There, on the screen before Shane, was the unmistakable silhouette of Shane’s demonic form. Most noticeable were his eyes, two black voids that would send a shiver down any human’s spine.   
Ryan really had seen him. There was no way he could deny this one.  
The boys sat in silence on Shane’s couch for what felt like days. Shane knew he had to speak, but he had no idea what to say. Shane took a shuddering breath, and decided to try and level with Ryan. “Ry, we can’t-we can’t post this…”  
“What? I just gave you proof, proof, that ghosts are real, and the first thing you tell me is that we can’t post it?”  
Shane was hurt. Even more so when he felt the building anger radiating off of the man sitting next to him. “Ryan, please, don’t post that.” Shane realized that he, an immortal demon, was begging to a human.   
Ryan stood up off the couch, crossing the room to stare directly into the place where Shane’s soul would have been if he had one in the first place. Shane squirmed under Ryan’s firm gaze. “I get it. I finally get proof of the supernatural, and you don’t want me to post it because you only care about yourself!”  
Now Shane stood up, and took a few steps away from Ryan, desperately trying to calm him down enough to reason with him. “That’s not why-”  
“No Shane, that’s exactly why you don’t want me to post it. You can never admit you’re wrong. Not to me, not to the crew, and certainly not to the entire internet. I can’t believe you would put your own pride in front of our relationship.”  
Shane took another step back. He knew Ryan was angry and hurt, all of which was Shane’s fault. Ryan was angry at Shane for not believing him and hurt that Shane was putting himself before the show. Which is what Shane was doing; protecting his secret instead of letting Ryan finally have proof. “I swear, Ry, that’s not what I’m doing... You’re right,” Shane couldn’t believe what he was about to say, “I can’t deny that footage, the only explanation is that we caught something supernatural.”  
At this, Ryan visibly relaxed. Shane had clearly caught him off guard with this honesty. “Wait, did you, Shane Alexander Madej, actually admit we confirmed the existence of the supernatural?”  
Shane held out his hands and shrugged, “Not even I can deny this one, baby. But Ryan, please, I'm asking you as your friend, don’t post that video.”  
All the anger that had melted away from Ryan suddenly came rushing back, “HOW? You admitted we got evidence of the supernatural, yet you don’t want me to post it? What the fuck, Shane? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t post that video.”  
Shane frantically thought of any answer he could possibly give to Ryan to help him understand why that video could not reach the internet. Shane realized he was trapped into a corner, there was only one answer he could give to Ryan.  
“Because, Ry, that thing you caught on video… It’s me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To everyone who left comments on my last chapter, thank you! I read all comments, I'm just really bad when it comes to responding to them. Please leave me feed back or suggestions for the next chapters to come!


	3. Buzzfeed Solved?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Shane's secret out in the open, Ryan now has the proof he has always wanted... Yet, something doesn't feel right about all this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a few days since I updated, which is the longest I've gone so far... Yeah, so please leave feedback and lmk what you think!  
> Go check the end notes for an update on the next chapter!!!

It had been six hours since Ryan had fled from Shane’s apartment. In those six hours, Shane had barely been able to process what had happened earlier that night. How had everything gone so wrong so fast? One day, Shane was filming Youtube videos with his best friend, and the next he was preparing to have to disappear off the face of the planet forever. Well, maybe not forever, but Shane certainly wouldn’t dare show his face on Earth for a few lifetimes now. But, ultimately, Shane knew that he was to blame for getting himself in this situation. 

Ryan hadn’t believed Shane when he first confessed to being the entity in the footage. Reasonably so, Shane had spent his entire career up to that point denying the existence of the supernatural, only to come forth claiming to be a real life demon. Ryan would not listen to anything Shane was saying, and in the end, Shane decided to show Ryan a glimpse of his true nature. He allowed his eyes to go completely black, just for a moment. Shane had never felt such true, genuine fear as he did emitting from Ryan in that moment. Shane vaguely remembered trying to talk to Ryan, but it was too late. Ryan ran out the door without looking back. 

Immediately after Ryan fled, all Shane could think about how that was probably the last time he’d ever see Ryan again. The thought alone brought an unbearable amount of sadness to Shane. He had never meant for things to get so out of hand. It had been hours since Ryan had left, yet Shane had yet to move away from the spot he had been in when Ryan had stormed out. He had been frozen in that spot for what simultaneously felt like days and mere seconds. It took everything in Shane to pull out his phone and at least check the time.  
Yikes, 2:33 a.m.  
Shane had been sitting on his living room floor since nine. Looking at his phone seemed to have broken him from the trance he had been in. Shane could now finally begin to piece together little details from his apartment he hadn’t noticed before. Like how Ryan had left in such a panic that the front door to Shane’s apartment was still wide open. Or how Ryan had abandoned his shoes in favor of a quick getaway. The sight of the shoes made Shane’s stomach knot. Despite the mad dash Ryan had made to leave Shane’s apartment, he had managed to remember to grab his laptop on his way out.  
Oh shit, the laptop. In all of Shane’s concern for Ryan and his relationship, he hadn’t stopped to think about what had gotten them into the situation in the first place. Ryan had footage of Shane in his demon form on that laptop. It was over. Shane had messed up, and now the entire internet was about to be shown real footage of a demonic presence.  
Shane wondered if Ryan would tell the internet who the demon was. If not, what was Ryan’s plan to explain away the disappearance of his co-host? Shane had contemplated texting or even calling Ryan, but everytime he so much as touched his phone, the image of Ryan’s panic-stricken face flashed in his mind. If Ryan reacted this poorly, Shane couldn’t even begin to imagine the reaction the viewers would have. Unfortunately, Shane didn’t have to wait long to have those questions answered. He knew that in a little over 24 hours the new Unsolved would be posted for all the internet to see…

Ryan had had his share of sleepless nights before. For crying out loud, he had spent the night in fucking haunted houses before. Whenever Ryan found himself far too panicked to sleep in any of the haunted locations he had been to, he always knew that he could rely on Shane for comfort. As much as Shane complained when Ryan woke him up, claiming to have heard a noise, Shane always made sure Ryan had calmed down before falling back asleep. Ryan never truly minded sleepless nights as long as Shane was there with him.  
Tonight was different. Tonight, the thing that kept Ryan awake and alert was Shane. Ryan had fled from Shane’s apartment, running faster than he ever had before to get to his car. When he had first gotten back to his own apartment, Ryan half-expected Shane to already be there. Ryan was beyond relieved to realize he was alone. He immediately got to work, forming a salt circle around his bed and clutching his water gun filled with holy water tightly to his chest. Despite all the extra precautions he took, Ryan was petrified, unable to move. He still could not wrap his mind around what had happened just hours before. As terrified as Ryan was of Shane somehow appearing in his apartment, he was even more afraid of seeing Shane at work the next day. Ryan was still debating whether or not he should call in sick when his alarm began to go off. Ryan nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise, hardly able to believe it was already five a.m. Ryan decided to face the inevitable and begin getting ready for work.

At 8 o’ clock, Ryan pulled into the Buzzfeed parking lot. He refused to turn off the engine, scanning the entire building for Shane. Ryan was shaking, scared of coming face-to-face with Shane again. Yet, at the back of his mind, Ryan couldn’t help but almost want Shane to be there. The hardest part about the last few hours wasn’t the fear Ryan had felt, but the inability to go to Shane for comfort.  
After sitting in his car for about ten minutes, Ryan decided to finally go inside. He cautiously approached his desk, expecting to see Shane at the desk right next to his. To his surprise, Shane hadn’t come to work yet. Ryan was relieved, yet couldn’t help the nagging feeling at the back of his head. Shane had never, in all their years of working at Buzzfeed, showed up to work after Ryan.  
Shane never showed up to work. Throughout the day, people continuously asked Ryan where Shane might be, and every question reminded Ryan of the previous night. The worst part of Ryan’s day was when he had to finish editing the new Unsolved episode. He couldn’t bring himself to touch the footage, yet it was supposed to be finished the next morning.  
Despite everything, Ryan desperately wished Shane was there. He always had some stupid advice to give Ryan. 

Ryan had finished work for the day, yet he found himself moving as slowly as possible to leave. Ryan couldn’t stand to return to his empty apartment. The silence was unbearable, and every little noise made his skin crawl. When Ryan finally climbed the stairs leading to his door, he hesitated before turning the key. Right before he entered his apartment, he was struck with the sudden panic over whether Shane would be there, waiting for him. Ryan didn’t think Shane would kill him, but then again, Ryan also didn’t think Shane could be a demon, so what did he know.  
Ryan took some time to reflect on times him and Shane had together. Somehow, even in the worst of places, like the Sallie House or Goatman’s Bridge, Shane always made Ryan feel safe. Looking back, Ryan felt like an idiot. All of those times, the thing Ryan should have been afraid of was the very thing he called his partner. Ryan was horribly confused, and braced himself for another sleepless night.

The day moved in slow motion. Shane felt like he was checking the time every thirty seconds. He didn’t mean to, but he couldn’t take his mind off of what he knew was coming. It was Friday morning, and he knew that later that afternoon Buzzfeed would post the latest Unsolved video. In his head, he had already run through about every scenario, none of which ended with him being welcomed back by the Shaniacs. Part of Shane hoped Ryan wouldn’t out him as the demon in the confessional, the other part of him thought that it really didn’t matter.  
For the second day in a row, Shane called in sick to work. The rest of the day, Shane was too anxious to do anything substantial. The hours seemed to drag on miserably slow. Shane had just finished refreshing his youtube feed for what must have been the thousandth time, when a new notification popped up;  
“The Grisly Hauntings of the Mission San Miguel”  
Shane’s stomach dropped. His hands began shaking uncontrollably as he clicked onto the video. He wasted nothing time in fast-forwarding the video to the solo investigation segments. He watched as his finger scrubbed along the video.  
He recognized where Shane and Ryan had first done a walking tour of the mission. The episode then moved to the spirit box section. Shane was getting into the last few minutes of the video. Without realizing, Shane held his breath, knowing what was about to come. He made it past the spirit box investigations and lifted his finger off of the slider. He watched the video, waiting for what came next.  
The video cut to their conclusion. Ryan’s voice filled Shane’s head.  
“And whether Mission San Miguel is actually haunted, will remain, Unsolved.”

Shane couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The footage of him wasn’t in the episode. At first, he thought it was a mistake. Then, his phone buzzed. He looked down at his screen, not quite believing what he saw. 

Ryan Boogara:  
Hey Big Guy, can we talk?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this when I was fairly tired, so expect a few grammar and spelling edits to come ;)  
> *** Hey guys! it is currently the 20th of June. I have half of the next chapter written and am trying to finish it in the next day or so. Things have been crazy lately because I'm taking summer classes that have me working 24/7. I haven't had much time to write because of it, but I promise this work is not going to be abandoned! I want this next chapter to be good, so I won't upload it until i'm satisfied. 
> 
> THANK YOU ALL for the overwhelming support for this fic!


	4. The meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan and Shane have a long awaited talk after Shane's secret getting brought to light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS. I am so freaking sorry for not posting for over a month. I really have no excuses accept writer's block. I feel like this chapter was kinda short, so I might end up doing six chapters, who knows. I promise it won't take nearly as long for the next chapter to be up.

The first thing Shane noticed was that Ryan had asked to meet in a public place. Or, more specifically, a park across the street from Ryan’s apartment building. Shane could tell that Ryan had put thought into their meeting place. If they met at Shane’s apartment, Shane would have the metaphorical home field advantage. Ryan couldn’t risk inviting a literal demon into his apartment, despite the fact that said demon had been coming to his apartment for years without any problem. The park across the street from Ryan’s apartment complex was perfect, however. It was out in the public, which would prevent Shane from making any sudden moves. It was within fleeing distance to Ryan’s apartment (which he had already demon-proofed so that Shane had no way of following him) in case he needed to make a quick getaway. Most importantly, they were supposed to meet in the park at 10 p.m. on Friday night, which would allow them enough privacy to talk. Shane wondered how long it had taken Ryan to decide on where to meet.   
Shane began walking towards the park around a quarter to ten. Every step he took felt like one more nail in his coffin. He still was in shock that Ryan had even suggested meeting in the first place.   
At some point during his walk, Shane realized he might actually be walking into a trap. Ryan purposefully had left out the footage of Shane from their last episode. Ryan was probably planning to trap Shane when he got to the park. That way, Ryan could get actual proof that the demon in the footage was Shane. After Shane’s secret was exposed on camera, Ryan would be able to post the two pieces of evidence together. Shane suddenly realized agreeing to meet Ryan was a terrible idea.  
Shane had been so lost in his thoughts for the duration of his walk that he was stunned to find himself already at the park. His head was screaming at him, begging him to turn around, but somewhere deep inside was begging for some sort of closure, regardless of the consequences. Shane was debating leaving when he saw Ryan walking towards him.   
Ryan was walking down the park sidewalk slowly, with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. His entire demeanor changed when he saw Shane walking towards him. He became rigid and removed his hands from his pockets quickly. When they were both close enough to hear each other speaking without having to yell, they stopped. Shane felt a tinge of anger emanating off of Ryan. That’s when Shane finally saw that Ryan was holding something. A water gun. More specifically, a water gun filled with holy water.   
Shane froze. He felt fear, raw, unfiltered fear. He thought at first the fear was Ryan’s, but quickly realized it was actually his own fear. Oh shit, Shane was afraid. The last time Shane had been this afraid was, well… never, actually.   
Ryan looked up at Shane, wondering who would have to speak first. Ryan wasn’t sure he was even ready to be having this conversation, to be with Shane again so soon. Yet, he needed answers, and he wanted to make sure he got them.   
Ryan looked down at the toy gun he was holding. He felt stupid when he had originally grabbed the toy in his house, but now, standing in the dark with a demon, he felt like he had made the right decision.   
He looked from his gun back up to Shane. Shane was shivering, like he was cold. But the night was warm, and Ryan had never known Shane to get cold ever. Ryan realized that he was shivering, rather he was shaking like someone would if they were afraid. Was Shane afraid?  
Any question Ryan had prepared seemed to melt away with the thought of Shane Madej being afraid of anything. Ryan had known Shane for years, and not once had he seen him more than mildly spooked. Ryan attempted to say something, but couldn’t find the words to speak. His mind was grasping for words that weren’t there. His eyes locked with Shane’s, and he was able to let out a faint whisper.   
“Shane?”  
At the sound of his name, Shane seemed to shrink into himself. Ryan thought for a second that he had heard the other man let out a whimper. Without realizing what he was doing, Ryan started to walk closer to Shane. Ryan’s movements caused Shane’s attention to shift away from the ground and back to Rynan.  
Shane took a small step away from the smaller man. “Don’t,” Shane stuttered, “D-don’t shoot me. Please Ry.”  
Ryan was stunned. He had grabbed that silly gun as a protective measure, he had never planned nor wanted to use it on Shane. As confused and scared as he was, Shane was still such a huge part of Ryan’s life. Much to his chagrin, Shane had become his best friend, and Ryan truly didn’t know what he would do without him. Ryan looked back up to see Shane still quivering violently. At this point, Shane was making no attempts to hide the tears streaming down his face.  
Knowing that he was the cause for all of Shane’s pain, Ryan felt his heart breaking. This time, without hesitation, Ryan cleared the distance between Shane and himself. Before Shane could react, Ryan had wrapped him into a hug. At first, Ryan could feel the taller man’s body stiffen at the embrace, but after a few seconds he relaxed into it. Shane soon put his own arms around Ryan.  
Shane was the first to break the silence. “I hope this means you’re not gonna shoot me.”  
Ryan actually giggled. Leave it to Shane to say the most questionable thing at any given moment. Ryan rolled his eyes as he pulled away from the hug. “Better watch out Big Guy, I am a little trigger happy,” Shane started to grin at Ryan’s words.  
“Eh- I’m not too worried, your aim is about as good as a storm trooper’s.” Although Shane was willing to joke around with Ryan, it was obvious that both men were still on edge. Ryan was no longer afraid of Shane, and felt quite goofy standing around in a park in the middle of the night.   
Ryan locked eyes with Shane, suddenly losing the playful tone in his voice, “Shane, do you want to go somewhere where we can- uh - actually talk?”  
Shane opened and closed his mouth a few times as if he was trying to form a logical response. The best he could do was breathe out the word,”Where?”  
Ryan gave a small shrug, “Is your place cool?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'll be sure to update faster next time! comments and kudos are always appreciated!!!

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, this chapter was kinda an experiment, dipping my toes in the water, ya know?I envision this fic to have either 4 or 5 chapters! I'm gonna keep updating this, and maybe if enough people want me to I'll do more chapters than I originally planned... Who knows?


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